Wings to Imagination - Cars of the Future

Updated on February 9, 2014

According to a recent study on car technology, by 2035, half of the cars around the world will become autonomous and connected to each other. This means you just need to sit inside the car, give verbal instructions and it will drive to your destination. Yes this is true. One can see the implementation of this concept in today’s high-tech cars.

Flying cars are there but it will take a lot of years before these models are introduced for common usage among masses. At that time, flying cars will not look like an airplane. They will be more compact and easy to fly. | Source

What capabilities you want to be introduced in cars of the future?

Vehicle-To-Vehicle Communication. How cars connected to each other and traffic lights

A car can also sense when you are feeling tired or sleepy while driving. At that point, it will immediately indicate you to pull over and take rest and save you from a fatal accident.

Now let’s put wings to our imagination and think of some concepts that can be applied to the cars of the future.

Remember, logic can help you do things right but a masterpiece can only be created with innovative imagination.

Talking cars: Talking cars means cars that communicate with each other on the road and also with us, just like our friends. Cars taking our instructions are already there. Suppose you are in your self-driving car and want to listen music. You instruct your car to play music and within a fraction of a second your favourite music number starts playing.

Suppose you are feeling hungry and would like to eat a burger. Your car with the help of GPS navigation tracks the nearest McDonald’s outlet and drives you there.

Talking cars will help reduce accidents by 80 per cent, according to a recent US news agency. This will be mandatory for new cars launched in 2017. The cars will connect with each other and will alert of potential dangers on the road. | Source

Another example is you are on a highway and getting late for your office, you instruct your car to take the shortest route. Your car connects with other cars on the road to track the shortest route to reach your office. If there is a traffic jam, it gets that information beforehand and takes an alternate route saving time, energy, money on fuel, etc.

All these concepts are already there in high-tech cars but here the cars are only taking instructions and following them. But in future, the cars will also speak to us. Suppose you are wrong somewhere, it will give you the perfect advice utilising its supercomputing and worldwide interconnecting capabilities.

With the help of radar and satellite technology, cars of today can connect to each other. With the implementation of sensor technology, your car can sense several things such as pedestrian and traffic movement on the road, raising warning alerts for unintentional lane departure movement, etc.

Low-flying cars: The cars are communicating with each other and the owner. Now what’s next? Next will be low-flying cars. These cars will fly a few inches up from the road which will help them in increasing speed and fuel efficiency. Here the tires are not stuck with the ground (enabling zero friction) which will help in longer life of roads too, i.e., roads with less potholes, etc.

Future cars will improve road safety, some points are:

Automatic vehicle diversion towards safer routes in case of a collapsed infrastructure on the present route.

Cessation of cruise control of vehicle in rain, especially in slippery conditions.

Powerful Terrafugia TF-X car flying high

High-Flying cars: No more parking problems, cleaner and traffic-free roads for people to walk on, this will be the life after the introduction of flying cars.

You will park your car inside your house (in your present balcony or terrace if you have one) even if you live on the 15th floor of a building. This is not possible today and due to this lots and lots of parking chaos.

But even if common-use high-flying cars are invented, their implementation among masses would be a difficult task, as just like airplanes, whole air traffic system for millions of cars will need to be created. Air routes will be assigned.

The system will require robust supercomputing capabilities with zero error tolerance, as just a simple error will result in complete failure of the system, resulting in fatal accidents or crisis-like situations, but technology will overcome this and that’s for sure.

Anyways, high-flying cars are not a reality today and it will take a lot of time for this concept to be implemented.

I think if we will have all-autonomous cars by 2040, the flying car technology might come into existence by 2060 or later.

Sooner or later, we, our kids, or kids of our kids will enjoy riding in these cars.

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2 comments

These will not work in urban or sub-urban areas. Technology will have to improve vastly, and new technologies will have to be developed, before these would be safe.

Perhaps their beginnings will be in very rural areas first. Technology would to increase immensely to the point that each of these vehicles will have a sophisticated onboard computer system tied with GPS and technology that needs to still be developed that would prevent avert collisions.

In fact , collision avoidance technology I believe should be developed and implemented into traditional vehicles first and also. So many deaths and injuries can be prevented with such technologies.

soni2006 2 years ago from New Delhi, India Author

@pctechgo, I agree with your statement about these cars initiating in rural areas first and then coming in urban areas. And yes a robust GPS navigation plus collision avoidance technology with integration of highly sensitive sensor technology needs to be developed. Thanks for your comment.